Let's Go to Prison

Year 13, Day 176 - 6/25/21 - Movie #3,879

BEFORE: Dax Shepard carries over from "Employee of the Month". He was in "CHIPS" earlier this year, but I didn't use him as a link at that time, my intro link was Michael Peña and the outro link was Vincent D'Onofrio - so I suppose these two Dax Shepard films represent a road not taken at that time, or this spot between yesterday's film and today's was perhaps another place that "CHIPS" could have fit, if I hadn't watched it back in March.  I suppose I've been thinking a lot lately about choices and the roads not taken, or if the road that I've taken doesn't feel like the right one, how do I get off of it and on to another one, because I can't really go back to the old one, so do I have to wait and find a new one, or just maybe stand by the side of the road for a while I think about how to find a new one, I don't know.  I'm just so confused. I think if I quit this new second job I'll be depressed for a while, but keeping it is wearing me down, and I'm not sure which is worse. 

The pandemic obviously threw a monkey wrench into my career plans, because I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if not for COVID, and as soon as jobs started to become available, I jumped at the first opportunity, which may not have been the right move - but now I'm earning some extra money and I don't want to give that up, because I don't know how long it will take me to land another job.  Everything is telling me to hand in my notice, but that puts me back to square one, being under-employed again.  So there's another little voice telling me to stay put until I line up something else, but there's no indication when that will happen, so naturally I feel stuck.  Taking time off to go to Chicago didn't help make things clearer, nor does a weekend day off like today, and thinking about it only makes me feel worse about it. 

THE PLOT: When a career criminal's plan for revenge is thwarted by unlikely circumstances, he puts his intended victim's son in his place by putting him in prison...and then joining him. 

AFTER: Obviously there are many forms of prison - a bad job can feel like a prison, a bad relationship can feel like a prison, and of course during the pandemic with so many people cooped up at home, even your own home can feel like a prison under certain circumstances.  Then the questions start coming, like "How long is this prison sentence?" or "Is there anything I can do to get out of this situation sooner?"  But never mind metaphor, because today's film concerns a genuine (only, umm, not real) prison, Rossmore Correctional Institute.  SIDE NOTE: scenes were filmed at the defunct Joliet Prison, seen in the opening of "The Blues Brothers" and during the first season of "Prison Break". Most other non-prison scenes were filmed in and around Chicago, which is coincidentally where I was earlier this week.  

Lead character John Lyshitski (yeah, they no doubt named him that as a sneaky way to get a curse word into the film many times over, without actually using it...) gets out of prison for the third time, and naturally he blames the judge who sentenced him two out of three times.  While trying to get violent revenge on that judge, he finds out the judge died three days before his release, so he does the next best thing, tries to get revenge on the judge's son.  Seems like faulty logic to me, or perhaps an antiquated belief that the perceived sins of the father should be atoned for by the son, but my guess is that some screenwriter didn't really think too hard about this.  Most of the plot points in the film feel thrown together, or based on really simplistic beliefs about what it means to be incarcerated - which means a very simplistic gang structure, white skinheads vs. black militants, and a lot of gay rape jokes.  I'm not saying that DOESN'T happen, but perhaps there are people who get through the system without being in constant fear of it.  But then again, I'm not an expert, most of what I know about the penal system does come from watching shows like "Oz" and movies like "Papillon", "The Longest Yard", "Escape from Alcatraz" and such.  

Lyshitski follows Nelson, the judge's son and messes with him randomly, like emptying the inhaler he finds in his car.  This leads to a chain of events where Nelson frantically enters a pharmacy for a refill and gets mistaken for a robber.  It's random and unlikely, I know - but Lyshitsky fires his own gun to take advantage of the confusion, and Nelson is then sentenced to prison.  Soon after, Lyshitski knowingly sells pot to a couple undercover cops in order to get arrested himself, and request incarceration in the same prison, just to mess with Nelson further.  NITPICK POINT: I'm not sure that any sentenced criminal has the right to request which prison he gets assigned to, nor would an inmate be allowed to choose his cellmate, the film really stretches believability here, just to get its two lead characters in the same place.  

What follows is a delicate game, as Lyshitski pretends to take Nelson under his wing, all the while giving him bad advice or manipulating the other prisoners in order to make his life more miserable.  He even pimps him out, so to speak, to Barry, a large black man, just to keep the homophobic comedy rolling, I guess.  Sure, for some men this may be the worst situation they can imagine, but if the comedy's coming from either a racist or a homophobic place, that's not cool these days.  I guess you could get away with this in 2006, but it just wouldn't fly today.  

(There are distinct parallels to "Arrested Development", Will Arnett's characters in both this movie and that show spent time in prison, and also questioned their sexual orientation at other times.  I'm not sure which came first, honestly, but at some point Will Arnett may have experienced some form of dramatic deja vu.)

Naturally, as in many comedies, things don't go as planned - the rivalry between the two men is in fact quite similar to that seen in "Employee of the Month", both times Dax Shepard's character tries to take down his rival and fails, creating an even stronger enemy in the process.  Here Nelson manages to survive all the bad advice and hazing, triumphs in some very unlikely manners and eventually becomes a much stronger person, able to not only survive in prison but thrive, this too also strains the boundaries of credulity, and culminates in the most unbelievable method of prison escape ever, like honestly not even close to reality.  It's the worst possible example of screenwriters painting themselves into a corner, with almost no way out.  To continue the metaphor, it's like that painter had to break a hole through the wall just to get out of that corner without messing up the paint.  

So, in the end, there's a lot here that just doesn't WORK, and I maintain that even in a wacky comedy, there are still rules that need to be followed, and bending reality just to find some kind of a conclusion is cheating of the highest order.  Sorry, that's just how I see it. 

Also starring Will Arnett (last heard in "Dolittle"), Chi McBride (last seen in "Still Waiting..."), David Koechner (last seen in "I'm Not Here"), Dylan Baker (last seen in "Selma"), Michael Shannon (last seen in "The Current War: Director's Cut"), David Darlow (last seen in "The Weather Man"), Bob Odenkirk (last seen in "The Giant Mechanical Man"), A.J. Balance, Miguel Nino, Jay Whittaker, Amy Hill (last seen in "Cheaper by the Dozen"), Jerry Minor (last seen in "Drillbit Taylor"), Susan Messing (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Jim Zulevic, Bill McGough, Larry Neumann Jr., Michael Hitchcock (last seen in "Mascots"), with cameos from Tim Heidecker (last seen in "Ant-Man and the Wasp"), Eric Wareheim (last seen in "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie")

and archive footage of Tim Allen (last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Jim Bakker, James Brown (last seen in "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"), Heidi Fleiss, John Gotti, Leona Helmsley, Tommy Lee (last seen in "The New Guy"), Charles Manson, Ozzy Osbourne (last heard in "Sherlock Gnomes"), Martha Stewart (last seen in "What Women Want"), Mike Tyson (last seen in "Whitney").

RATING: 4 out of 10 packs of cigarettes

Employee of the Month

Year 13, Day 175 - 6/24/21 - Movie #3,878

BEFORE: This is another one that's been on the list for seemingly forever, maybe it's only been a little over a year, but it sure FEELS like it's been on my list a long time.  Or that I've been avoiding it for a long time, more likely.  An aversion to Dane Cook, probably.  He hasn't headlined too many movies, so I'm guessing there are a lot of people who feel that same way about him.

Sean Whalen carries over from "An American Pickle". 

THE PLOT: A slacker competes with a repeat winner for the "Employee of the Month" title at work, in order to gain the affections of a new female employee. 

AFTER: But how funny is it that this movie finally rises to the top of my watchlist, after me openly avoiding it for SO LONG, just a week or two after I started a second job at a movie theater?  Now, I can't really say much about the quality of the job, because that's against company policy, the handbook was quite clear on that.  But I will say that I'm actively looking for something better, or at least different, so that should give you some idea.  I don't mind working on nights and weekends, except that I'm still keeping my day job, so my schedule is now that I either work 6 hours in an office, followed by 7 or 8 hours in a movie theater, or if the two jobs don't fall on the same day, then I may work 7 or 8 hours in the theater, and dash home in the early a.m. to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep before I have to get up and go to the office.  Either way, I feel like I'm working fireman's hours, which is like 12 hours on the job and then 1 or even 2 days off. 

As I write this, it's after 3 am because I just got home from working the late night shift, the theater started showing "Fast & Furious 9" or whatever the hell they're calling this one, at 7 pm on Thursday, on three screens out of seven, and that means one show got out at 1:45 am.  The concession staff all help pitch in to sweep the last few theaters, because that means that everyone can leave a little earlier, like maybe at 2 am instead of 2:15.  But the help is always appreciated.  It should only take me about 30 minutes to get home, but this week the L train is having track maintenance done, so I have to hop on a shuttle bus at some point, and that takes longer, because subways don't have to weave through traffic, but buses do.

Anyway, enough about my problems - I'm just trying to put my head down and do what I have to do to get through the next month, or two months, or until I can find a better job and transition out of this one.  It's supposedly an employee's market right now, as the pandemic comes to an end, there's apparently a desperate shortage of workers willing to take minimum wage jobs, and that's how I got the crazy idea to go back into the movie theater business, which I last worked in as an usher over thirty years ago.  I'm older now, and I can't stand on my feet for as long as I used to, PLUS I'm out of shape because of the pandemic.  Ahh, who am I kidding, I'm out of shape because that's my consistent lifestyle, not exercising.  Well, at least I'm consistent. 

The main character here is a similar lazy slacker, who just wants to do his job, get paid and not advance in the company.  I should empathize with this character, only he's played by Dane Cook, so I don't want to do that.  His rival at the big box store (Super Club) is the cashier who always goes above and beyond, he rings up all the items with flair and he's been named Employee of the Month 17 times in a row, and once he gets to 18 then he wins a new car (yeah, right...) and the store manager passes his resume over to corporate, or something.  It's probably all a scam just to get the other store employees to work harder, right?  They have no intention of letting him win that car...

What's also weird about the car is - what the HELL is it doing in a big box store?  I know some of the chains like Sam's Club or Price Club sell tires, but not cars.  But there are actually quite a few gags in this film concerned with what this store in New Mexico (?) or Arizona (?) sells - like we see shotguns on the shelves, and one lady is buying a coffin for her husband.  These are very unlikely items, and I know they're gags, but these are "Airplane!"-style gags, and they seem out of place here.  Or they're a sign that simply nothing about this film should be taken seriously, but in the end, it's your call. 

Do you believe that there are hot women who get hired as cashiers, who then have some kind of weird fetish where they want to sleep with whoever wins "Employee of the Month"?  Yeah, it sounds unlikely. Most women would aim higher, or they'd base their choice of sexual partner on other things, like a sense of humor or a nice face or a chiseled frame.  Show me the real person, anywhere, who thinks "Whoa, he made employee of the month at his job, quick, let me tear his clothes off!"  Yet that is what this film's storyline wants up to believe.  Zack the Slacker sets out to take down perennial EotM Vince, just to get with Hot Amy.  Dude, it's not a thing, you probably have a shot with her, just by being nice and showing interest in her!  

I think there are a lot of successful men (and women too, trying to be non-gender specific here...) who seem to "trade up" with partners as they progress in their careers.  Once they have a little more money and a better job title, or perhaps become more famous, they tend to drop the partner they're with and hook up with a younger, perhaps prettier (or more handsome) one.  To some extent this may be just natural, as relationships are always beginning and ending, as they will, but in some cases it's so obvious, like with, umm, Chris Pratt or Bill Clinton.  Terrible examples, perhaps, but I include Bill Clinton because he got a lot more adulterous tail as he advanced from Governor to President, and the women got prettier as he went along.  So clearly there's a class of person (or there was, before the #metoo movement) who wait until they become famous to cheat or trade up.  

But I'm getting away from the movie.  Things start to spiral out of control as Vince finally has a rival for the title of "Employee of the Month" - it seems that the few dozen other employees who work for Super Club just aren't trying very hard?  This seems unlikely, it feels more like some screenwriter just wanted to concentrate on two characters, and in dumbing this competition down for the audience, created a situation where only TWO of the store employees ever get noticed or rewarded for their work ethic, or for going above and beyond for the customers.  OK, so maybe 98% of the store's employees just have stopped caring or trying, but it feels JUST a little convenient and forced here that there are only two viable candidates for the reward, in a store with dozens of workers.  Just sayin' - probably a NITPICK POINT.  

Zack manages to get a fair number of gold stars JUST for trying a bit harder than usual to do well, and then once Vince realizes he's got some competition, keeps messing up as he tries to sway the competition in his favor, so at the end we've got a dead heat, leading to the most ridiculous price-checking competition - mixed with an even more ridiculous obstacle course run through the store - to determine the winner.  No spoilers here, but it's pretty obvious who the movie wants you to root for, the lovable slacker over the entitled douchebag.  

Also starring Dane Cook (last seen in "Waiting..."), Jessica Simpson (last seen in "The Dukes of Hazzard"), Dax Shepard (last seen in "CHIPS"), Tim Bagley (last seen in "Otherhood"), Andy Dick (last seen in "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond"), Brian George (last heard in "Batman: The Killing Joke"), Harland Williams (last heard in "The Addams Family"), Efren Ramirez (last seen in "Casa de mi Padre"), Marcello Thedford (last seen in "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn"), Danny Woodburn (last seen in "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her"), Barbara Dodd, Victor Izay, Alison Raimondi, with archive footage of Cary Elwes (last seen in "We Don't Belong Here"), Robin Wright (last seen in "Wonder Woman 1984") and the voice of Peter Falk (last seen in "Undisputed").

RATING: 4 out of 10 softball uniforms

An American Pickle

Year 13, Day 174 - 6/23/21 - Movie #3,877

BEFORE: Seth Rogen carries over from "Like Father" - and if the biggest problem with yesterday's film was not enough Seth Rogen, this one should make up for it, because it's got DOUBLE the Seth Rogen!  He plays two parts in this one....

THE PLOT: An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern-day Brooklyn. 

AFTER: This is, perhaps, another loose tie-in with Father's Day - since I don't exactly know when Grandparents' Day is, or even Great-Grandparents' Day, if there is one.  This movie is about two men interacting, one is the great-grandfather of the other, and both played by Seth Rogen, obvi.  It's one of those stunt casting ideas, they used to pull this off with split-screen camera tricks but now I think they just use special effects.  I know that they basically filmed the whole movie twice, with Rogen playing the older Herschel first, then running through all the same scenes again with him playing the modern-day Ben Greenbaum, Herschel's descendant.  

It's quite a coincidence that the two characters share the same last name, because that assumes only male descendants for three generations. It's even more of a coincidence that they look so much alike, because in those same three generations you would expect influence from outside non-Greenbaum DNA, and that means it would be very unlikely that Herschel and his great-grandson would resemble each other so closely.  But for the movie to work the way it does, they need to feel a kinship with each other, and looking almost alike helps the audience as a constant reminder that they're related.  Seriously, though, Herschel's son would only have half of his DNA, a grandson would have only a quarter, and therefore, logically, Ben would only share one-eighth of the same genes as his great-grandfather.  

But this functions more as a thought experiment than anything else - a man can't be preserved in a giant pickle vat for 100 years, that's just not the way things work.  How did he breathe for 100 years?  Why didn't he get smaller, in the way that a cucumber gets smaller when it becomes a pickle?  Now, if Herschel had gotten frozen, either cryogenically or in a block of ice like Captain America, then maybe I could believe this ridiculous notion a little more.  An even bigger NITPICK POINT, though, comes from asking me to believe that the pickle factory would like dormant in Brooklyn for 100 years - that's prime industrial real estate, I could see it maybe lying fallow during, say, the Depression era, but after World War II wasn't there a manufacturing boom?  Wouldn't some enterprising real estate company have sold the building to another buyer, or if not, then torn down the useless factory and put up condos there in the 1980's, or something?  

Instead, two kids fly a drone into the old factory and accidentally bump the pickle vat open.  This is clunky storytelling at best - was this really the easiest, best way to get somebody from 100 years ago to be alive in the present?  After we had "Hot Tub Time Machine", now I'm supposed to believe in "Pickle Vat Time Machine"?  It feels like a storytelling cheat just to get someone from 1920 into the modern world, just so they could be confused about cars and e-mails and the fact that racism is now bad.  

Still, there are funny moments - the two men start out as newfound relatives (it's a bit of a bummer that Ben's parents are no longer alive, and that he won't talk about his feelings on this matter...) but soon get on each other's nerves.  Jeez, if you think your parents can annoy you with their outdated advice, imagine interacting with your great-grandfather, who was born in the old country!  This is probably accurate, he'd never shut up about the value of hard work and how back in the day they appreciated the simple values of physical labor, being poor and dying young.  And then we've got the crazy kids with their internet start-ups, artisanal coffee and seltzer, and always with the selfies!  Ben wants to refine his app that gives people instant advice on which products come from "ethical" companies, while Herschel decides he'll make his fortune in the pickle business - only he knows nothing about taxes, proper sanitary procedures or corporate responsibility of any kind.  

In many ways, it's the same story told in "Like Father" - the two generations are at odds with each other, until they eventually realize that they're stronger working together than apart.  Rather than trying to destroy each other's dreams, much more can be accomplished, perhaps, when they set their sights on the same goal, which, unfortunately, involves selling pickles to hipsters. But when you don't have a steady job, go with what you know, I guess.  That's what led me back to working in a movie theater, and now I can't wait to quit and move on to something else, anything else. 

Also starring Sarah Snook (last seen in "The Glass Castle"), Eliot Glazer, Jorma Taccone (last seen in "Hot Rod"), Kalen Allen, Molly Evensen, Kevin O'Rourke (last seen in "The Irishman"), Joanna P. Adler (last seen in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"), Sean Whalen (last seen in "Jersey Boys"), Geoffrey Cantor (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), Carol Leifer, Marsha Stephanie Blake (last seen in "The Wilde Wedding"), Liz Cackowski (last seen in "Wine Country"), Tim Robinson, Betsy Sodaro (last seen in "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot"), Michael Weaver (last seen in "The Greatest Game Ever Played"), Herb Mendelsohn, Kurt Braunohler (last seen in "Long Shot"), Raymond Neil Hernandez, Jess Stark, with archive footage of Barbra Streisand (last seen in "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"), Mandy Patinkin (last seen in "Life Itself")

RATING: 6 out of 10 controversial tweets

Like Father

Year 13, Day 171 - 6/20/21 - Movie #3,876

BEFORE: Sorry, I'm late posting my review of my Father's Day film, as I said I would be.  We just got back from three days in Chicago. I'm not counting today, which was totally just a travel day, it was all about getting back home. (We went from car to bus to plane to monorail to subway, with a total travel time of 10 hours...).  So I didn't spend Father's Day with my father, but instead we visited my brother-in-law in suburban Illinois - we'd cashed in our Florida tickets from last April that were unused due to the pandemic, and took the opportunity to visit some family, at least.  Accidentally picking Father's Day weekend to do that was a terrible mistake, because on Saturday JFK airport was SUPER crowded, we arrived two hours early but if we hadn't been Sky Priority, we never would have made the plane, I think we'd still be standing in line.  The trip back was easier in some ways, fewer people traveling on a Tuesday.

We were only in downtown Chicago for about 6 hours yesterday, during which we re-visited Navy Pier, then strolled through the Northwestern U. campus to get to the Magnificent Mile, but only shopped at a few stores before getting coffee at the World's Largest Starbucks (5 floors!) and then making our way down to Morton's steakhouse for my wife's brother's belated birthday dinner.  The two days prior to that were spend in a variety of Illinois bars, restaurants and antique shops in the Crystal Lake area.  There are worse ways to spend your first trip after the pandemic, I suppose, but I was SO behind on sleep the first day, and very cranky.  Now I'm back and I need to get back to work, and somehow still not fall too behind on movies, if possible. 

Kelsey Grammer carries over from "Middle Men". 

THE PLOT: After she's left at the altar, a workaholic advertising executive ends up on her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with her estranged father. 

AFTER: Some odd parallels with this movie plot and our Chicago trip - both featured karaoke prominently, for example.  And obviously this film is about travel, and that's what we were doing - but we went by plane and rental car, and the main characters here go on a cruise.  We haven't been on a cruise since 2013, our third, during which we visited the Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena, Panama and Costa Rica.  That was an 11-day cruise, and after that we'd been to just about every port in the Caribbean (Eastern, Western and Southern), so we stopped.  But I remember that in 2013 the cruises were very concerned with keeping things sanitary, back then norovirus was a big deal and had taken down a few cruise ships, so we weren't allowed to serve ourselves at the island buffets, and hand sanitizer was being used everywhere - now of course, COVID-19 is the big problem, and even as cruises are starting up again, there have been a few COVID outbreaks in the last couple of weeks, but you'd think that the cruise ships would have learned from viruses in the past years how to really handle things, only they really haven't.  Yeah, I think I'll stick to land vacations for a while. 

We also traveled on Holland America, and this movie is set on a Royal Caribbean ship - parts of it play like a giant commercial for that cruise line, like they mention the floating bar very prominently and show people surfing on that big wave machine thing, and the zip-lines, waterslides and the robot bartenders.  Then of course there's the big "Newlywed Game"-like competition and the big karaoke contest on the last night.  NITPICK POINT: it's doubtful that any passengers would take time away from their excursions and all the activities and buffets to REHEARSE for the karaoke contest.  Like, who DOES that?  I would have been too busy eating around the clock, like we had a schedule down, we knew that at 2 pm there was the taco bar on the Lido Deck, then at 3 pm there were burgers and hot dogs served on the Promenade, then 4 pm snacks in the lounge, then 5 pm early seating dinner, and so on...until late-night chinese food and ice cream if you were somehow still hungry. 

Fortunately there was a smart TV in our AirBnb in Illinois, and my wife figured out how to sign in to Netflix so I could watch this on a big TV, and not just on my phone.  She joined me for the big climax of the film, the karaoke contest, and I let her know that she probably caught the BEST part of the film.  Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer are both, like, real professional singers, Broadway level, and hearing them duet on "Come Sail Away" may seem a bit pedantic, but they really worked at it and gave great performances.  Of course their characters are both over-achievers and workaholics, so maybe they WOULD rehearse for karaoke, and that's how you win the contest, I get it. (The previous ship contest they entered, they cheated, but you can't really cheat at karaoke...)

I can't recommend that anyone left at the altar then use the intended honeymoon cruise tickets to re-connect with their father, but maybe for Rachel, that's exactly what she needed to do.  She certainly needed to go on some kind of vacation before she broke anything else at the office.  But still, there was that important potato chip pitch to make, and she's the type of person who kept putting work before her relationships and her own happiness.  But then again, that's EXACTLY why Owen left her at the altar.  Plus, her father once faced a similar challenge, trying to balance his own career with being a father, and it led to him leaving Rachel and her mother (now deceased) when Rachel was only 5.  So there's thirty years of baggage to unpack, and wouldn't you know it, getting stuck on a cruise ship together turns out to be just the thing to force them to re-connect.  

Admittedly, it's a bit forced the way they GET both people on to the cruise ship - supposedly Rachel invites her father along after they get drunk together, but I kept wondering, is that what really happened?  She doesn't remember, and that's what her father told her, but how do we know that he's telling the truth?  Amazingly, the film never even goes there, because there are plenty of other secrets and family dramas to deal with, so it's kind of a moot point.  Still, I suspect that her father, Harry, took advantage of the situation and invited HIMSELF on the cruise, when he realized how drunk his daughter was.  But, I guess it really doesn't matter, all that matters is that they cruised together and ended up working things out. 

Seth Rogen plays a very nice man from Canada on the cruise, who Rachel hooks up with, and I really would have liked to see him used more.  No spoilers here, but he's mostly absent after a certain point, and that's a damn shame. Rogen's wife directed the film, but I guess she understands better than most people that's he funnier in small doses?  His character had great chemistry with Rachel, but I guess that only gets you so far. 

Harry talks a lot about his "partner", Gabe - and Rachel first assumes this means that he's gay, only he's not.  But is he, though?  Kelsey Grammer's show "Frasier" was often mistaken for being a show about a gay man, so the writers often had to show him dating a lot of beautiful women to compensate - still, many chose to see the film as a show about gay men, Frasier and his brother Niles, because they both acted so professional, neat and non-macho.  People are going to read between the lines if they want to - but in the case of "Like Father", would it have been that bad if Harry WERE gay, and Gabe had been his life partner, not just his business partner?  Hey, you can still read the film that way if you want to - it feels a bit like a lost opportunity in the script.  

Also starring Kristen Bell (last seen in "CHIPS"), Seth Rogen (last heard in "The Lion King"), Paul W. Downs (last seen in "Rough Night"), Zach Appelman, Leonard Ouzts (last seen in "Set It Up"), Blaire Brooks (last seen in "Demolition"), Anthony Laciura, Mary Looram, Brett Gelman (last seen in "Lemon"), Lauren Miller Rogen, Jon Foster (last seen in "Life as a House"), Kimiko Glenn (last seen in "Can You Keep a Secret?"), Danielle Davenport, Wynter Kullman, Elisabeth Ness, Brian McCarthy (last seen in "Paterson"), Keilly McQuail, Jen Zaborowski, Brittany Ross, Marco Naggar, Amber Hodgkiss, Lenny Jacobson (last seen in "Jobs'), Ejyp Johnson, with archive footage of Goldie Hawn (last seen in "Snatched"), Kurt Russell (last seen in "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood").

RATING: 6 out of 10 assigned table mates